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This month’s theme for our Kulinarya Cooking Club is “Only in the Philippines”. Tina from Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner and I are hosting this month and we wanted to focus on unique dishes that can only be found in the Philippines.

Being a Filipina, I love my rice. Growing up, it would be normal for me to have rice three meals in a day. So I thought it natural for me to chose a rice dish for the theme.

I love rice for breakfast. To make a complete meal, add egg and a meat.

What makes this dish unique to the Philippines is the name. Tapsilog. Filipinos like to abbreviate or replace words with acronyms. Tapsilog comprises of Tapa (Tap) sinangag (si) and itlog (log).

Tapa is cured beef. It’s beef that’s been marinated overnight and in some cases, dried then fried. I like my tapa not dried as it can get tough and chewy when not done right. I left out the drying step.

Sinangag is garlic rice. I love it. It’s rice that has been fried with lots of garlic.

Itlog is egg. An oozy, runny egg is essential for this dish.

Recipe:

For the tapa:

700g thinly sliced beef tenderloin. I used sizzling steak

1/2 cup vinegar

3tbs soy sauce

1tbs mushroom or dark soy sauce

Pinch salt

Marinate the beef with the rest of the ingredients. Leave overnight or at least 4 hours.

To cook: in a large frying place the beef and marinade in. Let the beef simmer in the marinade until it dries out. Add some vegetable oil to the pan and gently fry until slightly browned and cooked through,

For the sinangag:

3cups of uncooked rice

1bulb of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

Pinch salt

To cook: cook the rice by absorption method. When cooked set aside to cool a bit. You can also use left over rice from the day before. When ready, add a little vegetable oil in a wok and gently fry the garlic till lightly browned. Add the rice and mix thoroughly and add the salt. Turn the heat to low and leave the rice to fry a little and for the garlic to infuse through. Mix every couple of minutes.

Like this:

This month’s theme for the Kulinarya Cooking Club is Noche Buena. A Noche Buena feast in the Philippines is a grand family affair on Christmas eve.

I love a feast. I love a feast even more during Christmas. Typical food that is served up on Christmas eve is lechon (roast suckling pig), pancit (noodles) and hamon (ham). Food seems to be more special during this time of the year, even the most simplest of dishes like barbecued prawns marinated in lemon and lime.

Growing up in Australia meant that our Christmas is during the Summer. Unlike the white Christmases of our American and English friends, Australians enjoy the balmy evenings standing next the barbeque on Christmas eve. As a Filipino Australian, my love for seafood is doubled. So what better Noche Buena dish to cook than barbequed prawns. I served my prawns with a big bowl of pasta salad, Filipino style.

There really isn’t a recipe for this as the prawns are simply marinated in lime juice and olive oil for about 30 minutes then barbequed for a couple of minutes on each side. The pasta salad is macaroni with mayonnaise with carrot, corn, pineapple, cucumber and cheese. Yum! I loved these growing up and as an adult, I still love it. No Filipino feast is complete without it.

I’m looking forward to this year’s Noche Buena at my parent’s house. I know there will be a great feast with my family.

Please check out everyone else from the Kulinara Club cooked up for their Noche Buena feast here.

Like this:

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney who are passionate about the Filipino culture and it’s colourful cuisine. Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family dishes. By sharing these recipes we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino food as we do.

This month’s theme is : colours of the Philippine flag. Red, white, yellow and blue.

This theme was very challenging. All colours need to be represented in the dish without using artificial colouring. We were allowed to use one colour as a prop. I decided to make crema de fruta. It had most colours of the flag: red, white and yellow and it is delicious. It’s a cake topped with custard then covered with fruit.

I’ve made cream de fruta before many years ago. I’ve forgotten how good this tastes. For the cake, I used my brown sugar sponge. I just used half the recipe, though you can bake the full recipe and freeze one of the cakes.

Recipe for Custard:

300ml milk

300ml cream

6 large egg yolks.

2 rounded tbs cornflour

4 tbs caster sugar

Bring the cream and milk to the boil in a non stick saucepan.

Beat the egg yolks, cornflour and sugar together in a bowl, then gradually whisk in the hot milk and cream.

Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly for about 10 minutes. The mixture should be thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Do not let it boil or it may curdle

Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool.

Fruit topping:

825g can of tropical fruit salad mix in juice or syrup

1 tbs of powdered gelatin

Place the fruit mix into a mixing bowl and sprinkle the gelatin on top

Let the gelatin sit for a minute or two then mix.

Place in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute to melt the gelatin.

Set aside to cool a little.

To assemble the cake:

Place the sponge cake in the cake tin you original baked it in so it’s the exact size.

If the cake is taller than the tin, trim off a couple of centimetres off the top.

Like this:

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney who are passionate about the Filipino culture and it’s colourful cuisine. Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family dishes. By sharing these recipes we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino food as we do.

This month’s theme is : Flores De Mayo.

Thanks to Sefie from Sefie Eats Blog and Connie from Home Cooking Rocks Blog for choosing this month’s theme. Flores De Mayo means flowers of May. It is a Catholic fiesta that is celebrated throughout the month of May to honour the Virgin Mary. At the end of the celebrations a parade is held, known as Santa Cruzan in all the towns and villages.

I think it had quite a lot of us from the Kulinarya Cooking Club stumped. I had no idea what was going to do and then I had a lightbulb moment.

I decided to make jelly. Not just any jelly but Filipino style. Our jelly is not the same as the jelly that most people are used to. Ours has evaporated milk in it and for flavor, I added coconut milk. The texture is also different. It is not as wobbly. It is more thicker and creamier too. This dessert is mostly found at all Filipino parties and I remember my mum making this many times for our family gatherings. My mum sometimes put cocktail fruits from a can in it but I decided to leave it out this time but I’ll definitely put it in next time I make it.

For the setting agent, I used agar agar. I had used this only once before when I made coconut noodles. I used a small bundt cake tin as it kind of looked like a flower. I also made one with pandanus essence. I love the taste and texture of the jelly. I will definitely make this again.

Recipe : (for a 600ml and a 250ml capacity mould)

500ml water

1/2 cup white sugar

10g agar agar strands

185ml evaporated milk

165ml coconut milk

pandan essence

pink food colouring

1. Place the water, sugar and agar agar into a pot. Simmer until the agar agar has dissolved.

2. Add the evaporated milk and coconut milk. At this stage you can taste it. You may add more sugar if you like it sweeter.

3. Pour 250ml of the liquid into a bowl and add a drop of the pandan essence. If your essence is clear in colour, you’ll need to add a drop of green food colouring. To the rest of the liquid add a drop of pink food colouring. Stir well.

4. Using a sieve, pour the green mixture into a 250ml capacity mould and the pink one into the 600ml capacity mould, again pour over a sieve. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to set.

5. When set, remove from the moulds. You may need to dip it in a some hot water to loosen a little.

You can check out what the members of the Kulinarya Cooking Club cooked up for this month’s theme here.

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and it’s colourful cuisine. Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino food as we do.

This month’s theme is Decadence.

For me, anything other than toast or cereal for breakfast is decadent. Firstly, I eat breakfast quickly in between getting both children fed and ready for the day. Secondly, if I do eat, it’s pretty boring. I eat just enough to get me through to lunchtime.

To have Champorado for breakfast is very decadent for me. Not only it’s because it’s more than the usual dull cereal but because it’s chocolate. Chocolate for breakfast, I recommend it.

Champorado is usually eaten for breakfast in Philippines. It’s usually accompanied by fried tuyo (salted dried fish). It’s stinky but lovely. I opted not to include in my breakfast. It really does stink out the house when you cook it therefore I am forbidden to cook it indoors. The only option was to cook it outside but I wasn’t brave enough to face the cold.

1/2 cup glutinous rice

5 cups water

5 tbs white sugar

2 tsp cocoa powder

50g dark chocolate, chopped

evaporated milk

1. In a pot, add the glutinous rice and water. Boil till the rice is tender and most of the water has been soaked up by the rice.

2. Combine the sugar ad cocoa powder in a small bowl then add to the rice. Stir to combine.

3. Add the dark chocolate.

4. Stir and leave on gentle bubble till the chocolate has melted and it has thickened.

5. Serve with a drizzle of evaporated milk on top.

NB: If you want it sweeter, simply sprinkle more sugar on top

You can check out what the other members of the Kulinarya club made for this month’s theme here.

Like this:

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and it’s colourful cuisine. Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino food as we do.

This month’s theme is Vegetables.

Filipinos are known for their fatty and fried foods. But there’s more to Filipino cuisine to just lechon and chicharon. We love to eat vegetables. We also love seafood since the Philippines is made up of more than seven thousand islands, we are surrounded by ocean.

I chose to make Pinakbet. This dish is a popular vegetable dish and is usually made up of bitter melon, okra, eggplant and fermented fish sauce. I rarely have this but when I do, I love all the different vegetables that go in this dish. The bitter melon and okra (lady fingers) are vegetables I rarely eat unless it’s in this dish. This is my mum’s recipe and she makes it all the time. Needless to say, whenever I crave this, I just go over to her place to enjoy.

1/4 pumpkin (500g) cubed

1 bunch snake beans cut into 5cm batons

5 lady fingers, topped and tailed

1 bitter melon, halved then sliced into 3-4cm thickness. Soak in salted water for 10-15mins

1 onion, chopped

4-5 small eggplants, cut into quarter’s lengthwise

1 tomato, large dice

1 knob of ginger, julienned

1/4 cup anchovy sauce (bagoong balayan)

100g pork, diced (optional)

100g raw prawns (optional)

1. In a large pot, saute the onion, garlic and ginger until transparent.

2. Add the tomato and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

3. If adding pork, add and simmer until cooked a little

4. Add the snake beans. Stir.

5. Add the anchovy sauce that has been mixed with 1/4 cup of water

6. Add the rest of the vegetables

7. Add enough water just to cover (about 1 cup)

8. Add the prawns

9. Simmer until vegetables are cooked through.

10. Serve with steamed rice and a piece of fried fish.

You can check out what the other members of the Kulinarya Cooking Club cooked up for this month’s theme here

Like this:

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and it’s colourful cuisine. Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino food as we do.

This month’s theme is aphrodisiac foods

When Pia chose this theme, she also gave us links to what foods are aphrodisiac. I chose to make morcon. A Filipino Stuffed Beef Roll. I changed the recipe a bit from the traditional one so that there are several ingredients in this dish that has aphrodisiac properties. My version has 4 of the ingredients listed. I added asparagus to the filling along with the traditional carrot. In the sauce there is garlic and a little bit of ginger. I served this on Valentines Day dinner for Hubby, however you don’t need an occasion to serve this delicious dish.

1. Marinate the beef for 20 minutes in the lemon juice, soy sauce and pepper.
2. Drain the beef and reserve the marinade. Lay the beef on a flat surface and arrange the filling in rows lengthwise. Roll the meat and enclose the filling and tie with kitchen string in several places. Roll the meat in flour and remove excess flour.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and brown the beef on all sides. Remove and set aside while you make the sauce.
4. In the same saucepan, add the reserved marinade, garlic, onion, ginger, tomato passata and bay leaves and cook over high heat until the liquid is reduced. Add the beef stock and bring back to the boil.
5. Return the meat to the saucepan and slowly simmer for about 1 hour until the meat is tender. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.
6. When cooked, transfer the meat to a platter, remove the string and slice crosswise. Drizzle the sauce over the meat and to freshen it up, squeeze the lemon juice over the dish.